"Realm of Dawn" - Montana
Image: "Realm of Dawn" - Montana
©Mark Metternich Photography, LLC
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Story:
It had snowed this fall night (October). The days before, I had scouted and prepared to shoot this favorite location at Glacier National Park. Once I got up in the subfreezing conditions and got my truck onto the icy road I realized that I had made a HUGE mistake and was 30-40 minutes late in timing the sunrise! Racing on icy dark roads and praying my heart out I thought I had totally ruined my one prime opportunity to photograph the lake with fresh snow. As I drove, almost out of control, for 35 minutes towards the lake the sunrise stalled. I had been photographing every morning for the last 3 months and I knew precisely when the sunrise should show. Even though I thought I would likely miss everything, I kept faith and went to the lake anyway. I arrived almost 40 minutes after sunrise should have happened and, all alone, I quickly set up on the lakes edge. The very moment I released my first frame suddenly the show started! It blazed pink for about 3-5 minutes and then faded off. Quickly, the "show" was over and it turned dark and gray. I decided to keep shooting anyway and experiment with long exposures since I was in such an awesome location. About 5 minutes into shooting off this almost 10 minute exposure, suddenly unpredictable orange "wild light" just blew up behind the mountain and then quickly faded off. After the 10 minutes were up, I closed the shutter, and went off scouting and photographing other nearby locations. Later that day, when I got back to my camper, I pulled the images up on my computer I was shocked to see this image! The exposure was perfect. I was so blessed and I will never forget the morning the sunrise stalled for me.
